Our current pilot programmes focus on solidarity, inclusion, participation, and imagining new ways of living together in Europe

We run these pilots to explore new ways of working and to investigate trends in society. The outcomes of these programmes feed back into our overall strategy and work. Currently we are exploring models of participatory grant-making, we research cultural practices contributing to solidarity within communities, and we investigate how we can make media and the public debate more inclusive to the perspectives of refugees.

FundAction

A new participatory fund making grants for social transformation, organized around a community of activists based in Europe to support social movements working towards a transition to a just and equitable world.

Participatory grantmaking seeks to involve those directly affected by the issues – the people that the money intends to help – in decision-making about where that money goes.

FundAction is built in a democratic and participatory way. A group of donors and activists came together in 2016 to form the idea for FundAction. In a series of meetings, they outlined the intention and values. Since May 2017, a smaller Facilitation Group has been putting this idea into action.

Culture for Solidarity

Culture for Solidarity investigates the roots of fragmentation in Europe through an artistic lens. The programme explores, discusses, and creates cultural practices that bring unusual groups of people together. We challenge cultural institutions to rethink their relationship to their audiences, and we inspire people who don’t usually attend institutional cultural activities to become active in the shaping and making of these events. Together, we find new ways of bringing people of different backgrounds together and create something ‘with’ them instead of ‘for’ them. Starting with a research phase, we will continue to develop new strategies with and for the cultural sector, and host an incubator workshop for fifty participants to develop their fresh and daring ideas for solidarity in their communities.

Displaced in Media

Refugees have entered European countries, but they haven’t entered the public sphere. When they do, it is as characters in other people’s stories - desperate faces, surging hoards and floating bodies - something ‘other’. We rarely hear from young refugees as experts or legitimate voices. If refugees and migrants are to become citizens of Europe, we believe they need to be participants in - rather than subjects of - public debate.

The strategic partnership Displaced In Media contributes to an innovative and collaborative infrastructure in Europe that supports refugee participation through media.